Crazy Heart Soundtrack Stirs Controversy

As Crazy Heart gains Oscar buzz with three nominations, including one for Best Original Song, a dispute is brewing behind the scenes between T-Bone Burnett and the wife of the late Stephen Bruton, according to a Feb. 5 report in The New York Times.

Shortly before his death, Bruton, who co-produced the soundtrack with Burnett, filed for divorce from his wife of 13 years, Mary Keating Bruton, and signed a will leaving her only $100 beyond their properties and most of his $1.2 million to his brother, the article said. The will named T-Bone Burnett, a childhood friend and longtime colleague of Bruton, executor of the will.

Mary Bruton is contesting the will, alleging that Burnett held “undue influence” over her husband at the time of his death and that Bruton, in the late stages of throat cancer at the time he signed the will, was suffering from the effects of his sickness, medications, as well as dementia that made him unable to make proper business and personal decisions.

Read the full article here.